Recipe Goldmine. There are thousands of great recipes, but what makes this site special are the hundreds of recipes from popular restaurants everywhere. Many are "copycat" recipes and many are the originals shared by the chefs themselves. From Ruth's Chris recipes to Taco Bell, you'll be able to easily make it at home.

I think the reason a lot of restaurant food tastes good is because they go extremely heavy on butter, spices, and so forth, vastly more than what their nutrition data suggests. On another note, back in 2001 there used to be a good and extremely thorough site that told you how to make a Mc Donalds & Wendy's burger clone, which was good as I preferred to use quality organic ingredients. It also enlightened me to the technique of wrapping a burger in wax paper and microwaving it for very short duration... it really works.posted by crapmatic at 8:23 AM on January 25, 2009

A seasonal favourite of mine is McDonald's Shamrock Steak, I'm glad they included it. Mmmm... green steak.posted by phirleh at 9:28 AM on January 25, 2009

I think the reason a lot of restaurant food tastes good is because they go extremely heavy on butter, spices, and so forth,

This is part of it but not the whole story. The other part is that they have ovens, stoves, "grasshoppers", grills, etc that stay at that most home cooks don't have the time or equipment to achieve. This enables things like steaks, fish, etc to caramelize very quickly yet remain rare/medium rare internally.

Also, they have the focus to make real broths, sauces, glazes, reductions, roux, etc that most people at home don't have the patience for. This vastly improves flavor.

And, finally, LARD. All great things begin with fat (including your dessert...how do you think the crust is so flaky), particularly PIG FAT. God bless the pig.posted by spicynuts at 9:36 AM on January 25, 2009

Not one, but two- TWO maid-rite recipes. Presumably not the one in Greenville Oh but I'll have to try them to see if it's close to the well guarded loose-meat recipe.posted by mcrandello at 11:53 AM on January 25, 2009

But I don't care how hard I try, nothing tastes like a real White Castle.

How hard you...try?

Yes I have tried several times. And have bought the frozen ones.

I was raised with them and always liked them. Now the closest White Castle is over 1000 miles away. Desperate times call for desperate measures.posted by Fuzzy Skinner at 11:53 AM on January 25, 2009

I was raised with them and always liked them. Now the closest White Castle is over 1000 miles away. Desperate times call for desperate measures."

No kidding. Trying to make your own White Castle burger is like skipping along the edge of the uncanny valley. When the taste isn't close you're all like, "That's cool. These burgers taste good, but not what I wanted." When you get a little closer to the right taste though, it's like, "Fuck! The aftertaste is right, and the texture is close, but the main flavor just isn't there." Then you're so upset by the wrongness of it all, the audacity of these impostor burgers to pretend they could approach the wonder of The Castle, that you throw out the whole batch and wonder why in the world you started with two pounds of ground beef.posted by Science! at 1:20 PM on January 25, 2009

FINALLY someone understands me!!!!!!

And even Science has no solution to the great White Castle mystery.posted by Fuzzy Skinner at 1:30 PM on January 25, 2009

# “The other part is that they have ovens, stoves, "grasshoppers", grills, etc that stay at that most home cooks don't have the time or equipment to achieve.”

Yes. Yes I did. Thanks. Been about 15 years since I've been a chef.posted by spicynuts at 3:53 PM on January 25, 2009

I love White Castle. The only way you know if you got it right is 10 beers first and what happens in the morning. You'll know by 9 am if you had the right recipe!posted by JohnnyGunn at 5:27 PM on January 25, 2009

Maybe "grasshopper" is the knockoff version.

I've never used a salamander, but I've seen enough cooking shows that I'm familiar with them (and thought it would be cool to have one at home, but that won't happen). Anyway I was at lunch with some friends at a Mexican restaurant and someone commented how the plates are always so hot, and I mentioned that they ran them through the salamander right before bringing them out. I thought it was commonly known, but I got stares of speechless disbelief. It was as if I had an actual living reptilian salamander perched on my head.

"Broiler thing!" I said. "You know.. they have a broiler thing."

From now on, I shall call it a grasshopper. No one will know the difference.posted by Fuzzy Skinner at 7:06 PM on January 25, 2009

(I'll be giving the Swiss Chalet sauce a go)posted by srboisvert at 3:57 AM on January 26, 2009

I checked out the Crockpot section because I lost my favorite Chicken and Dumplings recipe. Every single recipe I clicked on had a can of Campbell's Cream of Chicken soup in the ingredients list. Perhaps this is really the Campbell's Soup Crockpot Recipes?

Seriously, most of these recipes seem to be of the "combine one can of this processed food with one package of that processed food" nature.posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 6:47 AM on January 26, 2009

Seriously, most of these recipes seem to be of the "combine one can of this processed food with one package of that processed food" nature.

And now you know the secret of all midwestern US cooking.posted by middleclasstool at 8:02 AM on January 26, 2009

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